modern health scourges like obesity and diabetes have hit all of america heart, but african-americans much harder. our china-like rates of incarceration are slowly being beginning to trouble the consciousness of the opinion- making class. they have been a reality for the life of black families where every son or father is, has been, or someday will be behind bars according to statistics. today, we will talk frankly about questions of race. where is america now a century and a half after lincoln signed that emancipation proclamation? have we progressed as much as we like to think? what disparities in health, wealth, education, and incarceration do people of color still face? what might president obama accomplish in his second term to narrow these disparities? in an age of mass downward mobility, can policies that help minorities also help the majority? we have a spectacular panel today, many of whom contributed to this last issue of "washington monthly." i urge you to take a look at washingotnmonthly.com. douglas blackmon is chair of the miller center forum at the university of virgini